Agape

Agape is one of the four Greek loves, and it is now generally understood to refer to God's unconditional love for humankind. And it is a love in which we share, and it is linked to eros. As Pope Benedict XVI explains: "Yet eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift. Certainly, as the Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. Jn 7:37-38). Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God (cf. Jn 19:34)." This painting of St Bernard of Clairvaux embracing the Crucified One is in the church of San Bernardo in Rome.

Link da imagem: https://ift.tt/2MjOJeH
Fonte: Lawrence OP https://flic.kr/p/99kP2D